Crowding Luongo Hawks' strategy
The Blackhawks know it's not easy beating the Vancouver Canucks for a variety of reasons, the biggest being goaltender Roberto Luongo.
If New Jersey's Martin Brodeur still is considered the No. 1 goalie in the world, then Luongo might be No. 1A.
And Luongo comes into tonight's game against the Hawks at the United Center the hottest goalie in the league. He is 8-2-2 in his last 12 starts with a 1.56 goals-against average and .940 save percentage.
Luongo had a string of 3 straight shutouts snapped in Sunday's 2-1 loss at Minnesota. The shutout streak started Nov. 25 with a 2-0 win over the Hawks in Vancouver.
"You've just got to outwork him," said Hawks center Patrick Sharp. "You've got to get those second and third opportunities. He's one of the best goalies in the league, but I've seen people score on him before.
"We can't let him get in our heads. We play (Detroit's Dominik) Hasek eight times a year, and he's one of the best, too. We're going to treat him like everybody else and try and get traffic (and) bump him if we can legally."
Luongo is not only quick, but big at 6-feet-3.
"We have to create more havoc in front of him and make him stay in the blue paint," said Hawks coach Denis Savard. "Once he's just outside he's pretty tough to score on because he's a big goalie. We've got to make him stay in his crease as much as possible.
"We can defeat him if we get pucks to the net and drive the net hard."
Payback time? This is not the 1975 NHL, so it's unlikely the Hawks will be looking for revenge against Vancouver's Matt Cooke.
It was Cooke who checked Hawks defenseman James Wisniewski face first into the glass Nov. 25 in Vancouver. Wisniewski, who suffered a deep cut above his left eye and a mild concussion, returns tonight after missing three games because of the hit.
"We've got to worry about the game because we need to win, that's our first priority," said Denis Savard. "We can't just run around to look for people. I'm sure Wiz is going to be thinking about him, but he's just got to play his game.
"If there's such a thing as getting somebody back, you've got 15 years in this league so just play your game."
Line dancing: Tuomo Ruutu returns to left wing on the No. 2 line with rookies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
Sergei Samsonov, who is still searching for his first goal, will get another shot on the top line with Robert Lang and Martin Havlat. Patrick Sharp will center the third line for Yanic Perreault and Dustin Byfuglien with the fourth line expected to be Colin Fraser, Adam Burish and Martin Lapointe.